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William Simpson

Head, Collections

Gantz Family Collections Center

Bill Simpson is trained as a mammalian paleontologist and is in charge of all the fossil vertebrate collections.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

My love of paleontology started when I was a kid. Dinosaur books and models got me interested, a visit to the Field Museum when I was eight sealed my fate!

My undergraduate degree is in zoology and my graduate work is in vertebrate paleontology and geology. I studied 30 million year-old fossil mammals from a geologically complex portion of the Badlands in South Dakota. For this research I collected hundreds of fossil mammals which, like any fossil, needed the rock adhering to them removed before they could be studied. Because I did most of this lab work myself I got pretty good at “preparation".

In 1979 I took a three-year job at Field Museum preparing fossil vertebrates. This job turned into a permanent position managing the labs. Ten years later I was given the additional job of managing the vertebrate paleontology research collections – the library of already prepared fossils.

In 1998 - 2000 I supervised the laboratory phase of the SUE project. After SUE, as our department grew, I switched away from lab work and focused all my time managing the vertebrate paleo research collections.

I often get to participate in collecting trips. These have ranged from looking for fossil mammals in Chile, looking for dinosaurs in sub-Saharan Africa, looking for reptiles and mammal-like reptiles in Madagascar and Tanzania, to looking for dinosaurs in Utah. I have spent the most time (seven trips) in Madagascar, six trips to collect fossils, and one to teach lab methods at a university there. Lately I've been privileged to work with Pete Makovicky's crew in the Early Cretaceous of the San Rafael Swell in Utah

1997. WILLIAM F. SIMPSON, Organizer and Moderator for "Symposium on Preparation of Fossil Vertebrates", at the 57th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Field Museum of Natural History

1997. Steven M. McCarroll & WILLIAMF. SIMPSON, "Lost Fossil Method", abstract of talk presented for "Symposium on Preparation of Fossil Vertebrates", at the 57th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Field Museum of Natural History

1996. WILLIAM F. SIMPSON, "Renovating Riggs' Laboratories: Modernization of the Vertebrate Paleontology Preparation Labs at Field Museum", abstract of talk presented at the 56th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York

1985. WILLIAM F. SIMPSON, "Epoxy casts from natural molds", talk presented at the 45th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota